|
Date: |
|
Description: | Artist: Unknown; Date(s): circa 1590 - 1620; Classification(s): weapons, rapier, casting (process), sword, cast with alternately roped and reeded vertical ridges; Acquisition: bequeathed by Henderson, James Stewart, 1933-03-16 [HEN.M.212-1933]
Description: Rapier. Large, barrel-shaped pommel, boldly decorated with vertical ridges which are alternately roped and reeded. Grip bound with steel wire, consisting of alternating strands of narrow plain wire flanked on each side by a strand of narrow twisted wire, each of these treble strands being separated by a thicker twisted wire. There are Turks' heads at top and bottom. Knuckle-guard of flat, rather thick ribbon section, widening to a flat oval knob where it meets the pommel. A loop-guard joins an outside ring-guard which springs from the ends of the branches where there is a second, smaller ring-guard. Long, single rear quillon whose tip widens in the same manner as the top of the knuckle-guard. There is a strong, cusped ecusson. All of these guards are of the same flattened section, and all are decorated with a strong roped ridge running along the middle line of them. Plain back-guards of three elements. Very long narrow blade of flat hexagonal section with a deep single fuller on each side at the forte below a strong ricasso, the broader faces of which are hollowed. The tip of the blade is broadened and flattened. This characteristic flattening of the tip is to facilitate the use of a slashing sideways cut in rapier-and-dagger swordplay, called 'stramazzone'. In the ricasso are punched marks; on each side a crowned B surmounted by the crowned TO of Toledo. On each of the narrow faces of the ricasso are also crowned TO marks. In the fuller, on one side engraves in very elegant decorated letters DE PEDRO DE VELA, while on the reverse is MONTE EN TOLEDO.
Norman's hilt type 57, pommel type 32. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/terms.htm | Publisher: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Rights holder: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Subjects: | rapier Unknown weapons | Temporal: | name=16th/17th century; start=1590; end=1620 | Source: | Fitzwilliam Museum | Creator: | The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK | Identifier: | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opacdire... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
|
|